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Nottinghamshire on top as seamer takes his third five-wicket haul of the season

ECB Reporters Network12-May-2023Nottinghamshire seamer Brett Hutton took his third five-wicket haul of the season to compound his former county’s ongoing batting woes on the second day of this LV= Insurance County Championship match at Wantage Road.Hutton found plenty of movement under floodlights, cloudy skies and light rain to entice the batters into playing at balls outside off-stump and precipitate a Northamptonshire collapse as the Steelbacks lost seven wickets for 17 runs inside 12 overs before lunch, four batters falling without scoring.When Nottinghamshire batted, a typically aggressive Ben Duckett looked a different class as he made 39 despite the bowler friendly conditions, taking seven boundaries off his former county as Nottinghamshire raced to 50 off nine overs.Tom Taylor’s introduction into the attack threatened to cause an upset when the all-rounder removed both Duckett and Haseeb Hameed in his first over. Any hopes of making short work of the visitors were dashed thanks to a fluent fourth wicket stand of 68 between Joe Clarke (41 not out) and Matthew Montgomery (34).Earlier Northamptonshire opener Ricardo Vasconcelos impressed with 62, registering his second successive half-century of the season and sharing a third wicket partnership worth 77 with Saif Zaib. After the clatter of wickets, a spirited last-wicket partnership of 28 between Gareth Berg and Jack White, the second highest of the innings, took the hosts past 150.Northamptonshire had resumed on 86 for two after heavy rain restricted the opening day’s play to a single session. Despite Vasconcelos surviving two dropped catches on day one, he and Zaib looked solid early on.Vasconcelos reached his half-century with a clip off his legs which reached the boundary thanks to a miss field in the deep and survived another dropped catch when he was put down at short cover on 57.But while Vansconcelos enjoyed his luck, there was a procession of wickets at the other end against a disciplined Nottinghamshire seam attack.Zaib was the first to go, nicking Lyndon James to Duckett, the first of three slip catches for the England opener. Four balls later Hutton claimed his first scalp when he had Rob Keogh caught behind off the outside edge for 0. Steven Mullaney then got into the action, finding some late shape to trap James Sales lbw.Hutton found some more away movement to tempt Harry Gouldstone into prodding at one outside off-stump with Duckett taking a good low catch. He then saw off Taylor, also without scoring, Duckett again doing the honours.Vasconcelos’ near four-hour vigil finally came to an end when he too steered Hutton into the slips. Then, just before rain forced an early lunch, Jordan Buckingham was trapped lbw by Dane Paterson for 0. Berg hit a couple of lusty blows including a six over square leg before he was bowled to give Hutton his fifth wicket.When Nottinghamshire batted, Duckett was severe on anything loose, taking three leg-side boundaries off Berg’s opening two overs and punching him down the ground for four more, forcing the veteran seamer out of the attack.Northamptonshire missed a chance to remove Duckett on 27 when he nicked White at catchable height between keeper and first slip. Taylor made sure the miss was not too costly, getting his second delivery to angle back in and trap Duckett lbw. Hameed’s downfall came four balls later when Vasconcelos took a good low catch to give Taylor two wickets in his opening over. Jordan Buckingham was bowling a probing line and length from the opposite end and got his reward in the next over when Vasconcelos pouched another sharp slip catch.In a testing spell after tea, the increasingly unlucky White had two strong appeals for caught behind denied against Joe Clarke and saw the Nottinghamshire batter twice edge just wide of the slip cordon.
Montgomery was harsh on Sales, cutting and pulling him for two boundaries in his opening over but the bowler got his man caught behind to break a dangerous partnership.

Relaxation in Queenstown helps squad to overcome quarantine ahead of tournament

Andrew Miller25-Feb-2022Heather Knight, England’s captain, believes her squad has successfully “parked” the disappointment of the recent Ashes loss, and is ready to embrace the ebbs and flows of the forthcoming World Cup in New Zealand, where they will be defending the title they won on home soil in 2017.The England players emerged from their mandatory quarantine period three days ahead of schedule, and are due to face Bangladesh and South Africa in a pair of warm-up matches in Lincoln next week, ahead of their rematch with Australia in their tournament opener in Hamilton on Saturday.And though England’s last ODI meetings with Australia did not go to plan, as they were routed 3-0 in the decisive leg of the multi-format Ashes series, Knight believes that a few days of golf and mountain-climbing in their picturesque base of Queenstown has helped to reinvigorate the players and set them up for a very different sort of challenge in the coming weeks.”When you have to do most things outdoors, the place you want to be is one of the most stunning, beautiful places in Queenstown,” Knight said. “A few of us managed to take on Ben Lomond, which was a lot of fun, climbing for the views of Queenstown.”There’s been a lot of golf, a lot of just going to cafes, and just enjoying what Queenstown has to offer. It’s been a chance to just switch off, do a few outdoorsy things away from cricket, gather our headspace, and try and refocus following the Ashes.”

ESPNcricinfo’s updates from the 44th game of IPL 2020

Saurabh Somani25-Oct-2020

Fast bowler has all the attributes for English conditions, but lessons learnt from previous trips may stand him in good stead

Daniel Brettig18-Jul-2019Watch Jackson Bird bowl in Australia and most swiftly reach a similar conclusion: perfect for England. Tall, accurate and generating bounce and movement both ways, he has long been among the most consistent performers down under, as demonstrated by his recurring presence around the fringes of the Test team in a decidedly strong era for pacemen.Take Bird some 20 hours’ flying time to the other side of the world, however, and his seemingly well-grooved skills have tended to desert him. He struggled for impact in his one Test here, at Durham in 2013, and two county stints in 2015 and 2016 at Hampshire and Nottinghamshire tallied 34 wickets in 11 games at an average near enough to 40, while also giving up more than 3.5 runs per over.Nevertheless, Bird has continued to front up, earning a berth on the Australia A tour and thus a chance at Ashes selection by hoarding 50 wickets at 22.22 for Tasmania in 2018-19, after 37 at 21.81 the previous summer. Ahead of the internal trial match between two Australian sides that will provide the selectors with the final information they need to cut 25 players down to 16, Bird knows he is duelling for, at best, one remaining bowling spot with the likes of Peter Siddle, Chris Tremain and Michael Neser. When he takes the Dukes ball in Southampton, he will do so with the words of no less a Dukes exponent than Stuart Broad in his mind – they are worth recounting for all of Australia’s Ashes aspirants. “I’m probably not trying to swing the ball as much as I used to,” Bird said. “I’ve fallen into the trap over here a couple of times when I’ve come and played county cricket as well, to just focusing on swinging the ball rather than bowling the right length and I think that’s what’s cost me really.”I’ve spoken to a lot of guys that have played cricket over here, in either Ashes or guys I’ve played with, guys like Stuart Broad and stuff like that, and they just say you’ve got to bowl the right length that’s going to hit the top of the stumps or hit the knee roll [on the pad] and if the conditions suit it will swing anyway.”That’s all I’m trying to focus on doing and I think in the spells where I’ve bowled a bit full or been too expensive it is probably for that reason, so the spells that I’ve bowled well in I’ve been hitting the wicket and hitting the top of the stumps – it’s a good blueprint going forward.”The memories Bird has accumulated from numerous England trips should give him a decent chance of squeezing into the Ashes squad, although he was realistic about the fact that while many of the group assembling in Southampton on Thursday were already nailed on, he was very much in the group on the edge of things.”I assume there’s probably only one spot available, if that, for the fast bowlers, so I’m enjoying my time over here,” Bird said. “We’ve got a good bunch of guys that have had a good couple of weeks in this Aussie A stuff and we’re all looking forward to getting down to Hampshire.”I felt pretty good, I think I’ve improved from Arundel last week, so made a couple of good strides over the last week. I probably went for a couple of runs in my first spell but I thought I brought that back nicely and bowled a good spell in the middle of the day and, yeah, was pretty happy with the hit-out.”Anytime you come up against a Lions team, it’s a good hit-out, and this game was no different. There were a couple of guys in their Test squad against Ireland that were playing, so it’s good to bowl to a few of their batters who are on the fringe as well, in case they do get picked in the Test squad and you do play against them, at least you’ve got a bit of experience against them. You can never take that too lightly.”Frustration at Cricket Australia over the quality of county opposition rolled out for warm-up games on previous Ashes tours has manifested itself in the pitting of the two Australian sides against one another in Southampton next week. While the selection of the teams is a mystery, Bird revealed that the groups will be training separately, a likely necessity due to the sheer size of the group otherwise.”We don’t really know what the teams are going to be and how they’re going to pick the teams so that’ll be interesting to see what happens there in the next couple of days,” Bird said. “I think we’ve got a bit of an idea of what’s going to happen, I think were training separately and stuff like that, so we’ll at least try and make this game as competitive as possible.”It’s the only red ball hit-out for a couple of the guys that have been playing in the World Cup. I think those games can drag on a bit if they’re not taken too seriously so hopefully it’s 100% the whole time.”And with all players and staff crammed into the one hotel, that could make for some intriguing dynamics at the breakfast bar, among other places. “It might be a team rule, can’t fraternise with the opposition!” Bird joked. “It’ll be pretty funny I reckon, especially after a couple of weeks on tour, there’s going to be a few blokes who’ll cop it from other blokes I reckon, airing a bit of their grievances over the tour. It’ll be good fun.”

The opener smashed his sixth IPL hundred and 21st overall in T20s to lead Kings XI Punjab to 193 for 3, a score that proved too much for Sunrisers Hyderabad

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu19-Apr-2018
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:26

Agarkar: Sunrisers lacked firepower in the chase

Prior to the start of IPL 2018, Kings XI Punjab’s director Virender Sehwag said Chris Gayle would be worth the money spent on him if he were to win his team two or three games. Gayle has now played two match-winning innings in two matches. Four days after his 33-ball 63 against Chennai Super Kings, Gayle shellacked his sixth IPL hundred and 21st overall in T20s to consign Sunrisers Hyderabad to their first defeat of the season.On Sunday, Gayle lined up CSK’s medium-pacers, but adopted a different approach against a formidable Sunrisers attack. He saw off Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s first spell and later unleashed a brutal assault on Rashid Khan’s legspin. All told, Gayle smashed 42 off 16 balls from Rashid at a strike-rate of 262.50.Gayle batted through the innings for his 104 not out off 63 balls, which also included four twos. In pursuit of 194, Sunrisers lost early wickets as well as Shikhar Dhawan to an elbow injury, and there was no way back for them, despite fifties from their captain Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey.

Tye’s knuckle balls do the job

Andrew Tye, the Kings XI Punjab seamer, finished with figures of 4-0-23-2. Those two wickets included those of Kane Williamson and Deepak Hooda, both deceived by knuckle balls. Here’s Tye at the post-match press conference:
On choosing the knuckle ball: “It all depends on how I’m feeling at that time – whether the knuckle ball or the offcutter or the legcutter, back of the hand or anything – all depends on what I feel is working for me on the day. Today it was the knuckle ball, so I stuck with it and bowled a lot of them. Sometimes it works, sometimes I get hit into the crowd and look like a bit of an idiot.”
On the advantage of bowling second: “As a bowler [we] look what the opposition has done, what bowlers have worked for them. [Today] we summed it up to this: it was skidding on a bit, so a good hard length when the ball was new was sort of not bouncing. So you could pull it back a little bit, and [use] the slower balls to hit hard on that wicket to give the batsman no freedom to hit in the arc.”

Kings XI’s Jekyll-and-Hyde start
After becoming the first captain to opt to bat this season, R Ashwin reckoned Kings XI would be better off setting a target as opposed to chasing one against the best attack in the tournament at one of India’s larger grounds. Gayle and KL Rahul began cautiously against the swing and change-ups of Bhuvneshwar and Chris Jordan, and played out 12 dots in the first three overs. Gayle then launched Kings XI’s innings when he hit four boundaries in seven balls, including three leg-side sixes off Jordan and Rashid. In between, he was dropped on 14 by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha off Rashid’s first ball – a difficult chance off the toe end when he looked to cut.Rahul, at the other end, had an early scare when he was given out lbw on 5, but he survived after a review thanks to a thin inside edge. Rahul moved to 18 off 20 before being pinned in front by a Rashid skidder. Rahul’s Karnataka team-mate Mayank Agarwal flickered briefly before slicing Siddarth Kaul to backward point for 18 off 9; by then Kings XI were 83 for 2 in the 11th over.Chris Gayle raises his bat upon reaching his 21st T20 century•BCCI

Gayle v Rashid: round-II
With two wickets falling in quick succession, Gayle slowed down and brought up his fifty off 39 balls. He then kicked into top gear and became only the second batsman, after AB de Villiers, to take Rashid for four sixes in an over. Gayle did so off successive balls, in the 14th over, which cost 27 runs.When Rashid erred too full, Gayle simply opened up hips and put the sightscreen in danger, and when Rashid dragged his length back he mowed the ball over the leg side. The visual moment of the over, though, came when he hared back for a second run off the last ball and wore a wry smile.With their premier spinner leaking runs, Sunrisers were forced to look beyond their frontline options. Deepak Hooda, however, could not do much with his part-time offspin.Gayle’s party continues
After getting to his first fifty off 39 balls, Gayle surged to his second off only 19 balls. He moved to 99 with his 11th six – the most by a batsman this season – and raised the landmark by guiding one past backward point in the 19th over. He brought out the ‘cradle’ celebration and later dedicated the knock to his daughter, who will turn two on Friday.Gayle found supporting hands from Karun Nair (31) and Aaron Finch (14*) as Kings XI finished strongly at 193 for 3. Rashid, the best T20 bowler right now, was left nursing his worst figures of 4-0-55-1.Sunrisers sink in chase
Sunrisers suffered a major setback in the first over when Dhawan retired hurt after taking a blow to the elbow, and he did not return to bat. Mohit Sharma varied his pace excellently and bowled both Wriddhiman Saha and Yusuf Pathan to leave Sunrisers at 37 for 2 in five overs.Williamson and Pandey worked past the early strikes with a 76-run stand for the third wicket, but they struggled to keep in touch with the soaring asking rate. Mujeeb Zadran’s mystery spin, Andrew Tye’s knuckle balls, and the bigger boundaries in Mohali did not help Sunrisers’ cause either. When Williamson holed out for 54 off 41 balls in the 15th over, Sunrisers were left needing 81 off 34 balls. It was just too much for a middle order lacking muscle.

The number 13 is unlucky for some. For South Africa it will mark a new record winning streak in one-day internationals if they overcome New Zealand in Christchurch

Andrew McGlashan21-Feb-2017Will number 13 prove lucky for South Africa? That may depend if they keep on winning. The figure will mark their new record winning streak in one-day internationals if they overcome New Zealand in Christchurch.There have been some impressive displays among those 12 victories. Six times batting first they have posted over 300, and four times over 350; in another they chased down 372; and in eight of the matches they have bowled out the opposition.However, regardless of their current form, they still see improvements to be made. The victory in Hamilton became a nail-biter, as AB de Villiers and Andile Phehlukwayo guided them home with a ball to spare, and was one of their hardest earned of the unbeaten run.”We haven’t played the perfect game yet,” said batting coach Neil McKenzie.”Twelve in row has shown what we have been doing over last year has really worked. The big thing is we’ve got try get to play that perfect game and hopefully that comes in a semi or final. But the blueprint has got to be honed in every game you play.”A semi-final or a final. South Africa crave that global piece of silverware. The perfect game in a semi-final, never mind a final, is something they have been unable to do in 10 of the 11 multi-team tournament semis they have reached. The one success came against Sri Lanka in the 1998 Wills International Cup, the precursor to what is now the Champions Trophy.All the culture camps, all the team spirit, all the victories – no one will really know if it will make a difference until that chance comes up again.De Villiers rated the Hamilton victory was “10 out of 10” for the experience of winning a tight game, but “zero” when it came to conditions, given the pitches in the Champions Trophy are unlikely to turn anywhere near as much.With the Napier match having been shifted to Seddon Park because of the former’s poor drainage, there could yet be another spinning pitch in the offing so the remaining three matches – beginning with Christchurch on Wednesday – perhaps offer the best chance of something closer to English conditions.”All one-day sides gauge themselves on periods where you lead up to a Champions Trophy or pinnacle series,” McKenzie said. “It bodes well for us going to England where we’re going find the same sort of conditions generally.”Although South Africa will not entertain the notion, it would be a useful exercise for them if this series conjured up a deciding match in Auckland early next month. It would still only be for a bilateral victory, but it would at least give them the taste of a winner-takes-all match.